The Urantia Book
PAPER 156
THE SOJOURN AT TYRE AND SIDON
156:0.1 ON FRIDAY afternoon, June 10, Jesus and
his associates arrived in the environs of Sidon, where they
stopped at the home of a well-to-do woman who had been a patient
in the Bethsaida hospital during the times when Jesus was at the
height of his popular favor. The evangelists and the apostles were
lodged with her friends in the immediate neighborhood, and they
rested over the Sabbath day amid these refreshing surroundings.
They spent almost two and one-half weeks in Sidon and vicinity
before they prepared to visit the coast cities to the north.
156:0.2 This June Sabbath day was one of great
quiet. The evangelists and apostles were altogether absorbed in
their meditations regarding the discourses of the Master on
religion to which they had listened en route to Sidon. They were
all able to appreciate something of what he had told them, but
none of them fully grasped the import of his teaching.
1. THE SYRIAN WOMAN
156:1.1 There lived near the home of Karuska,
where the Master lodged, a Syrian woman who had heard much of
Jesus as a great healer and teacher, and on this Sabbath afternoon
she came over, bringing her little daughter. The child, about
twelve years old, was afflicted with a grievous nervous disorder
characterized by convulsions and other distressing manifestations.
156:1.2 Jesus had charged his associates to tell
no one of his presence at the home of Karuska, explaining that he
desired to have a rest. While they had obeyed their Master's
instructions, the servant of Karuska had gone over to the house of
this Syrian woman, Norana, to inform her that Jesus lodged at the
home of her mistress and had urged this anxious mother to bring
her afflicted daughter for healing. This mother, of course,
believed that her child was possessed by a demon, an unclean
spirit.
156:1.3 When Norana arrived with her daughter,
the Alpheus twins explained through an interpreter that the Master
was resting and could not be disturbed; whereupon Norana replied
that she and the child would remain right there until the Master
had finished his rest. Peter also endeavored to reason with her
and to persuade her to go home. He explained that Jesus was weary
with much teaching and healing, and that he had come to Phoenicia
for a period of quiet and rest. But it was futile; Norana would
not leave. To Peter's entreaties she replied only: "I will not
depart until I have seen your Master. I know he can cast the demon
out of my child, and I will not go until the healer has looked
upon my daughter."
156:1.4 Then Thomas sought to send the woman
away but met only with failure. To him she said: "I have faith
that your Master can cast out this demon which torments my child.
I have heard of his mighty works in Galilee, and I believe in him.
What has happened to you, his disciples, that you would send away
those who come seeking your Master's help?" And when she had thus
spoken, Thomas withdrew.
156:1.5 Then came forward Simon Zelotes to
remonstrate with Norana. Said Simon: "Woman, you are a
Greek-speaking gentile. It is not right that you should expect the
Master to take the bread intended for the children of the favored
household and cast it to the dogs." But Norana refused to take
offense at Simon's thrust. She replied only: "Yes, teacher, I
understand your words. I am only a dog in the eyes of the Jews,
but as concerns your Master, I am a believing dog. I am determined
that he shall see my daughter, for I am persuaded that, if he
shall but look upon her, he will heal her. And even you, my good
man, would not dare to deprive the dogs of the privilege of
obtaining the crumbs which chance to fall from the children's
table."
156:1.6 At just this time the little girl was
seized with a violent convulsion before them all, and the mother
cried out: "There, you can see that my child is possessed by an
evil spirit. If our need does not impress you, it would appeal to
your Master, who I have been told loves all men and dares even to
heal the gentiles when they believe. You are not worthy to be his
disciples. I will not go until my child has been cured."
156:1.7 Jesus, who had heard all of this
conversation through an open window, now came outside, much to
their surprise, and said: "O woman, great is your faith, so great
that I cannot withhold that which you desire; go your way in
peace. Your daughter already has been made whole." And the little
girl was well from that hour. As Norana and the child took leave,
Jesus entreated them to tell no one of this occurrence; and while
his associates did comply with this request, the mother and the
child ceased not to proclaim the fact of the little girl's healing
throughout all the countryside and even in Sidon, so much so that
Jesus found it advisable to change his lodgings within a few days.
156:1.8 The next day, as Jesus taught his
apostles, commenting on the cure of the daughter of the Syrian
woman, he said: "And so it has been all the way along; you see for
yourselves how the gentiles are able to exercise saving faith in
the teachings of the gospel of the kingdom of heaven. Verily,
verily, I tell you that the Father's kingdom shall be taken by the
gentiles if the children of Abraham are not minded to show faith
enough to enter therein."
2. TEACHING IN SIDON
156:2.1 In entering Sidon, Jesus and his
associates passed over a bridge, the first one many of them had
ever seen. As they walked over this bridge, Jesus, among other
things, said: "This world is only a bridge; you may pass over it,
but you should not think to build a dwelling place upon it."
156:2.2 As the twenty-four began their labors in
Sidon, Jesus went to stay in a home just north of the city, the
house of Justa and her mother, Bernice. Jesus taught the
twenty-four each morning at the home of Justa, and they went
abroad in Sidon to teach and preach during the afternoons and
evenings.
156:2.3 The apostles and the evangelists were
greatly cheered by the manner in which the gentiles of Sidon
received their message; during their short sojourn many were added
to the kingdom. This period of about six weeks in Phoenicia was a
very fruitful time in the work of winning souls, but the later
Jewish writers of the Gospels were wont lightly to pass over the
record of this warm reception of Jesus' teachings by these
gentiles at this very time when such a large number of his own
people were in hostile array against him.
156:2.4 In many ways these gentile believers
appreciated Jesus' teachings more fully than the Jews. Many of
these Greek-speaking Syrophoenicians came to know not only that
Jesus was like God but also that God was like Jesus. These
so-called heathen achieved a good understanding of the Master's
teachings about the uniformity of the laws of this world and the
entire universe. They grasped the teaching that God is no
respecter of persons, races, or nations; that there is no
favoritism with the Universal Father; that the universe is wholly
and ever law-abiding and unfailingly dependable. These gentiles
were not afraid of Jesus; they dared to accept his message. All
down through the ages men have not been unable to comprehend
Jesus; they have been afraid to.
156:2.5 Jesus made it clear to the twenty-four
that he had not fled from Galilee because he lacked courage to
confront his enemies. They comprehended that he was not yet ready
for an open clash with established religion, and that he did not
seek to become a martyr. It was during one of these conferences at
the home of Justa that the Master first told his disciples that
"even though heaven and earth shall pass away, my words of truth
shall not."
156:2.6 The theme of Jesus' instructions during
the sojourn at Sidon was spiritual progression. He told them they
could not stand still; they must go forward in righteousness or
retrogress into evil and sin. He admonished them to "forget those
things which are in the past while you push forward to embrace the
greater realities of the kingdom." He besought them not to be
content with their childhood in the gospel but to strive for the
attainment of the full stature of divine sonship in the communion
of the spirit and in the fellowship of believers.
156:2.7 Said Jesus: "My disciples must not only
cease to do evil but learn to do well; you must not only be
cleansed from all conscious sin, but you must refuse to harbor
even the feelings of guilt. If you confess your sins, they are
forgiven; therefore must you maintain a conscience void of
offense."
156:2.8 Jesus greatly enjoyed the keen sense of
humor which these gentiles exhibited. It was the sense of humor
displayed by Norana, the Syrian woman, as well as her great and
persistent faith, that so touched the Master's heart and appealed
to his mercy. Jesus greatly regretted that his people -- the Jews
-- were so lacking in humor. He once said to Thomas: "My people
take themselves too seriously; they are just about devoid of an
appreciation of humor. The burdensome religion of the Pharisees
could never have had origin among a people with a sense of humor.
They also lack consistency; they strain at gnats and swallow
camels."
3. THE JOURNEY UP THE COAST
156:3.1 On Tuesday, June 28, the Master and his
associates left Sidon, going up the coast to Porphyreon and
Heldua. They were well received by the gentiles, and many were
added to the kingdom during this week of teaching and preaching.
The apostles preached in Porphyreon and the evangelists taught in
Heldua. While the twenty-four were thus engaged in their work,
Jesus left them for a period of three or four days, paying a visit
to the coast city of Beirut, where he visited with a Syrian named
Malach, who was a believer, and who had been at Bethsaida the year
before.
156:3.2 On Wednesday, July 6, they all returned
to Sidon and tarried at the home of Justa until Sunday morning,
when they departed for Tyre, going south along the coast by way of
Sarepta, arriving at Tyre on Monday, July 11. By this time the
apostles and the evangelists were becoming accustomed to working
among these so-called gentiles, who were in reality mainly
descended from the earlier Canaanite tribes of still earlier
Semitic origin. All of these peoples spoke the Greek language. It
was a great surprise to the apostles and evangelists to observe
the eagerness of these gentiles to hear the gospel and to note the
readiness with which many of them believed.
4. AT TYRE
156:4.1 From July 11 to July 24 they taught in
Tyre. Each of the apostles took with him one of the evangelists,
and thus two and two they taught and preached in all parts of Tyre
and its environs. The polyglot population of this busy seaport
heard them gladly, and many were baptized into the outward
fellowship of the kingdom. Jesus maintained his headquarters at
the home of a Jew named Joseph, a believer, who lived three or
four miles south of Tyre, not far from the tomb of Hiram who had
been king of the city-state of Tyre during the times of David and
Solomon.
156:4.2 Daily, for this period of two weeks, the
apostles and evangelists entered Tyre by way of Alexander's mole
to conduct small meetings, and each night most of them would
return to the encampment at Joseph's house south of the city.
Every day believers came out from the city to talk with Jesus at
his resting place. The Master spoke in Tyre only once, on the
afternoon of July 20, when he taught the believers concerning the
Father's love for all mankind and about the mission of the Son to
reveal the Father to all races of men. There was such an interest
in the gospel of the kingdom among these gentiles that, on this
occasion, the doors of the Melkarth temple were opened to him, and
it is interesting to record that in subsequent years a Christian
church was built on the very site of this ancient temple.
156:4.3 Many of the leaders in the manufacture
of Tyrian purple, the dye that made Tyre and Sidon famous the
world over, and which contributed so much to their world-wide
commerce and consequent enrichment, believed in the kingdom. When,
shortly thereafter, the supply of the sea animals which were the
source of this dye began to diminish, these dye makers went forth
in search of new habitats of these shellfish. And thus migrating
to the ends of the earth, they carried with them the message of
the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man -- the gospel of
the kingdom.
5. JESUS' TEACHING AT TYRE
156:5.1 On this Wednesday afternoon, in the
course of his address, Jesus first told his followers the story of
the white lily which rears its pure and snowy head high into the
sunshine while its roots are grounded in the slime and muck of the
darkened soil beneath. "Likewise," said he, "mortal man, while he
has his roots of origin and being in the animal soil of human
nature, can by faith raise his spiritual nature up into the
sunlight of heavenly truth and actually bear the noble fruits of
the spirit."
156:5.2 It was during this same sermon that
Jesus made use of his first and only parable having to do with his
own trade -- carpentry. In the course of his admonition to "Build
well the foundations for the growth of a noble character of
spiritual endowments," he said: "In order to yield the fruits of
the spirit, you must be born of the spirit. You must be taught by
the spirit and be led by the spirit if you would live the
spirit-filled life among your fellows. But do not make the mistake
of the foolish carpenter who wastes valuable time squaring,
measuring, and smoothing his worm-eaten and inwardly rotting
timber and then, when he has thus bestowed all of his labor upon
the unsound beam, must reject it as unfit to enter into the
foundations of the building which he would construct to withstand
the assaults of time and storm. Let every man make sure that the
intellectual and moral foundations of character are such as will
adequately support the superstructure of the enlarging and
ennobling spiritual nature, which is thus to transform the mortal
mind and then, in association with that re-created mind, is to
achieve the evolvement of the soul of immortal destiny. Your
spirit nature -- the jointly created soul -- is a living growth,
but the mind and morals of the individual are the soil from which
these higher manifestations of human development and divine
destiny must spring. The soil of the evolving soul is human and
material, but the destiny of this combined creature of mind and
spirit is spiritual and divine."
156:5.3 On the evening of this same day
Nathaniel asked Jesus: "Master, why do we pray that God will lead
us not into temptation when we well know from your revelation of
the Father that he never does such things?" Jesus answered
Nathaniel:
156:5.4 "It is not strange that you ask such
questions seeing that you are beginning to know the Father as I
know him, and not as the early Hebrew prophets so dimly saw him.
You well know how our forefathers were disposed to see God in
almost everything that happened. They looked for the hand of God
in all natural occurrences and in every unusual episode of human
experience. They connected God with both good and evil. They
thought he softened the heart of Moses and hardened the heart of
Pharaoh. When man had a strong urge to do something, good or evil,
he was in the habit of accounting for these unusual emotions by
remarking: `The Lord spoke to me saying, do thus and so, or go
here and there.' Accordingly, since men so often and so violently
ran into temptation, it became the habit of our forefathers to
believe that God led them thither for testing, punishing, or
strengthening. But you, indeed, now know better. You know that men
are all too often led into temptation by the urge of their own
selfishness and by the impulses of their animal natures. When you
are in this way tempted, I admonish you that, while you recognize
temptation honestly and sincerely for just what it is, you
intelligently redirect the energies of spirit, mind, and body,
which are seeking expression, into higher channels and toward more
idealistic goals. In this way may you transform your temptations
into the highest types of uplifting mortal ministry while you
almost wholly avoid these wasteful and weakening conflicts between
the animal and spiritual natures.
156:5.5 "But let me warn you against the folly
of undertaking to surmount temptation by the effort of supplanting
one desire by another and supposedly superior desire through the
mere force of the human will. If you would be truly triumphant
over the temptations of the lesser and lower nature, you must come
to that place of spiritual advantage where you have really and
truly developed an actual interest in, and love for, those higher
and more idealistic forms of conduct which your mind is desirous
of substituting for these lower and less idealistic habits of
behavior that you recognize as temptation. You will in this way be
delivered through spiritual transformation rather than be
increasingly overburdened with the deceptive suppression of mortal
desires. The old and the inferior will be forgotten in the love
for the new and the superior. Beauty is always triumphant over
ugliness in the hearts of all who are illuminated by the love of
truth. There is mighty power in the expulsive energy of a new and
sincere spiritual affection. And again I say to you, be not
overcome by evil but rather overcome evil with good."
156:5.6 Long into the night the apostles and
evangelists continued to ask questions, and from the many answers
we would present the following thoughts, restated in modern
phraseology:
156:5.7 Forceful ambition, intelligent judgment,
and seasoned wisdom are the essentials of material success.
Leadership is dependent on natural ability, discretion, will
power, and determination. Spiritual destiny is dependent on faith,
love, and devotion to truth -- hunger and thirst for righteousness
-- the wholehearted desire to find God and to be like him.
156:5.8 Do not become discouraged by the
discovery that you are human. Human nature may tend toward evil,
but it is not inherently sinful. Be not downcast by your failure
wholly to forget some of your regrettable experiences. The
mistakes which you fail to forget in time will be forgotten in
eternity. Lighten your burdens of soul by speedily acquiring a
long-distance view of your destiny, a universe expansion of your
career.
156:5.9 Make not the mistake of estimating the
soul's worth by the imperfections of the mind or by the appetites
of the body. Judge not the soul nor evaluate its destiny by the
standard of a single unfortunate human episode. Your spiritual
destiny is conditioned only by your spiritual longings and
purposes.
156:5.10 Religion is the exclusively spiritual
experience of the evolving immortal soul of the God-knowing man,
but moral power and spiritual energy are mighty forces which may
be utilized in dealing with difficult social situations and in
solving intricate economic problems. These moral and spiritual
endowments make all levels of human living richer and more
meaningful.
156:5.11 You are destined to live a narrow and
mean life if you learn to love only those who love you. Human love
may indeed be reciprocal, but divine love is outgoing in all its
satisfaction-seeking. The less of love in any creature's nature,
the greater the love need, and the more does divine love seek to
satisfy such need. Love is never self-seeking, and it cannot be
self-bestowed. Divine love cannot be self-contained; it must be
unselfishly bestowed.
156:5.12 Kingdom believers should possess an
implicit faith, a whole-souled belief, in the certain triumph of
righteousness. Kingdom builders must be undoubting of the truth of
the gospel of eternal salvation. Believers must increasingly learn
how to step aside from the rush of life -- escape the harassments
of material existence -- while they refresh the soul, inspire the
mind, and renew the spirit by worshipful communion.
156:5.13 God-knowing individuals are not
discouraged by misfortune or downcast by disappointment. Believers
are immune to the depression consequent upon purely material
upheavals; spirit livers are not perturbed by the episodes of the
material world. Candidates for eternal life are practitioners of
an invigorating and constructive technique for meeting all of the
vicissitudes and harassments of mortal living. Every day a true
believer lives, he finds it easier to do the right thing.
156:5.14 Spiritual living mightily increases
true self-respect. But self-respect is not self-admiration.
Self-respect is always co-ordinate with the love and service of
one's fellows. It is not possible to respect yourself more than
you love your neighbor; the one is the measure of the capacity for
the other.
156:5.15 As the days pass, every true believer
becomes more skillful in alluring his fellows into the love of
eternal truth. Are you more resourceful in revealing goodness to
humanity today than you were yesterday? Are you a better
righteousness recommender this year than you were last year? Are
you becoming increasingly artistic in your technique of leading
hungry souls into the spiritual kingdom?
156:5.16 Are your ideals sufficiently high to
insure your eternal salvation while your ideas are so practical as
to render you a useful citizen to function on earth in association
with your mortal fellows? In the spirit, your citizenship is in
heaven; in the flesh, you are still citizens of the earth
kingdoms. Render to the Caesars the things which are material and
to God those which are spiritual.
156:5.17 The measure of the spiritual capacity
of the evolving soul is your faith in truth and your love for man,
but the measure of your human strength of character is your
ability to resist the holding of grudges and your capacity to
withstand brooding in the face of deep sorrow. Defeat is the true
mirror in which you may honestly view your real self.
156:5.18 As you grow older in years and more
experienced in the affairs of the kingdom, are you becoming more
tactful in dealing with troublesome mortals and more tolerant in
living with stubborn associates? Tact is the fulcrum of social
leverage, and tolerance is the earmark of a great soul. If you
possess these rare and charming gifts, as the days pass you will
become more alert and expert in your worthy efforts to avoid all
unnecessary social misunderstandings. Such wise souls are able to
avoid much of the trouble which is certain to be the portion of
all who suffer from lack of emotional adjustment, those who refuse
to grow up, and those who refuse to grow old gracefully.
156:5.19 Avoid dishonesty and unfairness in all
your efforts to preach truth and proclaim the gospel. Seek no
unearned recognition and crave no undeserved sympathy. Love,
freely receive from both divine and human sources regardless of
your deserts, and love freely in return. But in all other things
related to honor and adulation seek only that which honestly
belongs to you.
156:5.20 The God-conscious mortal is certain of
salvation; he is unafraid of life; he is honest and consistent. He
knows how bravely to endure unavoidable suffering; he is
uncomplaining when faced by inescapable hardship.
156:5.21 The true believer does not grow weary
in well-doing just because he is thwarted. Difficulty whets the
ardor of the truth lover, while obstacles only challenge the
exertions of the undaunted kingdom builder.
156:5.22 And many other things Jesus taught them
before they made ready to depart from Tyre.
156:5.23 The day before Jesus left Tyre for the
return to the region of the Sea of Galilee, he called his
associates together and directed the twelve evangelists to go back
by a route different from that which he and the twelve apostles
were to take. And after the evangelists here left Jesus, they were
never again so intimately associated with him.
6. THE RETURN FROM PHOENICIA
156:6.1 About noon on Sunday, July 24, Jesus and
the twelve left the home of Joseph, south of Tyre, going down the
coast to Ptolemais. Here they tarried for a day, speaking words of
comfort to the company of believers resident there. Peter preached
to them on the evening of July 25.
156:6.2 On Tuesday they left Ptolemais, going
east inland to near Jotapata by way of the Tiberias road.
Wednesday they stopped at Jotapata and instructed the believers
further in the things of the kingdom. Thursday they left Jotapata,
going north on the Nazareth-Mount Lebanon trail to the village of
Zebulun, by way of Ramah. They held meetings at Ramah on Friday
and remained over the Sabbath. They reached Zebulun on Sunday, the
31st, holding a meeting that evening and departing the next
morning.
156:6.3 Leaving Zebulun, they journeyed over to
the junction with the Magdala-Sidon road near Gischala, and thence
they made their way to Gennesaret on the western shores of the
lake of Galilee, south of Capernaum, where they had appointed to
meet with David Zebedee, and where they intended to take counsel
as to the next move to be made in the work of preaching the gospel
of the kingdom.
156:6.4 During a brief conference with David
they learned that many leaders were then gathered together on the
opposite side of the lake near Kheresa, and accordingly, that very
evening a boat took them across. For one day they rested quietly
in the hills, going on the next day to the park, near by, where
the Master once fed the five thousand. Here they rested for three
days and held daily conferences, which were attended by about
fifty men and women, the remnants of the once numerous company of
believers resident in Capernaum and its environs.
156:6.5 While Jesus was absent from Capernaum
and Galilee, the period of the Phoenician sojourn, his enemies
reckoned that the whole movement had been broken up and concluded
that Jesus' haste in withdrawing indicated he was so thoroughly
frightened that he would not likely ever return to bother them.
All active opposition to his teachings had about subsided. The
believers were beginning to hold public meetings once more, and
there was occurring a gradual but effective consolidation of the
tried and true survivors of the great sifting through which the
gospel believers had just passed.
156:6.6 Philip, the brother of Herod, had become
a halfhearted believer in Jesus and sent word that the Master was
free to live and work in his domains.
156:6.7 The mandate to close the synagogues of
all Jewry to the teachings of Jesus and all his followers had
worked adversely upon the scribes and Pharisees. Immediately upon
Jesus' removing himself as an object of controversy, there
occurred a reaction among the entire Jewish people; there was
general resentment against the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin leaders
at Jerusalem. Many of the rulers of the synagogues began
surreptitiously to open their synagogues to Abner and his
associates, claiming that these teachers were followers of John
and not disciples of Jesus.
156:6.8 Even Herod Antipas experienced a change
of heart and, on learning that Jesus was sojourning across the
lake in the territory of his brother Philip, sent word to him
that, while he had signed warrants for his arrest in Galilee, he
had not so authorized his apprehension in Perea, thus indicating
that Jesus would not be molested if he remained outside of
Galilee; and he communicated this same ruling to the Jews at
Jerusalem.
156:6.9 And that was the situation about the
first of August, A.D. 29, when the Master returned from the
Phoenician mission and began the reorganization of his scattered,
tested, and depleted forces for this last and eventful year of his
mission on earth.
156:6.10 The issues of battle are clearly drawn
as the Master and his associates prepare to begin the proclamation
of a new religion, the religion of the spirit of the living God
who dwells in the minds of men.
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